Category: Law, Government, Politics

Dear Readers: In the olden days, Lillian and I used to write a summary of what we did during the year, take it to United Printing, have a hundred or more copies printed, bring it home, write personal notes at the end of each one to all our friends and family, address and stuff the … Continue reading A Christmas Letter

UPDATE: On Sunday afternoon, just a few minutes after I posted this article on my blog, the Corps of Engineers announced it would not issue an easement for Energy Transfer Partners to drill on Corps land, effectively putting a stop to completion of the pipeline until a full Environmental Impact Statement is prepared, seeking the … Continue reading The Governor Who Disappeared in August

Setting aside protests for a while. Let’s look at a planning effort that’s being done right. Here’s an article I wrote for this month’s Dakota Country magazine. Is it too much for North Dakota citizens to expect, that they should be provided a reasonable forecast of the environmental effects of 20,000 to 50,000 oil wells … Continue reading Getting Ready for 50,000 Oil Wells

The most consistent argument made by North Dakota regulators and the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline against the protest actions of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies is that the Tribe entered the pipeline approval process too late.  They should have made their feelings known earlier in the process. In mid-November, just … Continue reading ‘Our Water Is Our Single Last Property’

Note: I generally don't re-post old articles,  because, unlike things published in newspapers, blog posts don't get used for fish cleaning, they just hang out in archives deep in the bowels of the Internet, accessible forever if you look hard enough. But it's been 15 years and a day since the Thanksgiving I'm writing about … Continue reading My Best Thanksgiving Meal Ever

Note: This post has been updated to reflect that federal conflict of interest laws do not apply to the President of the United States. The post sad earlier the laws do apply. Sigh. What I can read into the Corps of Engineers' announcement Monday on the Dakota Access Pipeline is that the project will not … Continue reading Let’s Get Out Before the Weather Gets Bad

Here’s what I think of the election. We got all dressed up to go to the ball, and we ended up at a rodeo. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a good rodeo. A good rodeo can be very entertaining. There’s a bunch of guys and even a few gals out in the arena who don’t … Continue reading Let ‘Er Buck!

This year, as in most election years, I found a stack of notes to myself on my desk about things I thought I might write a blog about, but never got around to it because pheasant season opened, or the fish started biting, or the ducks were migrating, or Lillian’s “Things to Do In The … Continue reading Election Tidbits

All the Republicans are going to win. All the ballot measures are going to lose. No, that’s not my election prediction for 2016 (although it’s pretty close). Those were my election prediction on my blog for 2014, written two years ago this week, just before the 2014 election. (You can go back and look at … Continue reading Some Thoughts on the Election

A couple of months ago I wrote about the new oil refinery proposed by Meridian Energy Group, to be built just east of Medora, within three miles of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I wanted to wait with a follow-up until Meridian had actually submitted an application for an air quality permit, detailing what kind of … Continue reading The Great Meridian Energy Smokestack Scam